According to Hayek, civilizations grew because societal traditions placed importance on private property, enabling economic expansion, trade, and eventually the modern capitalist system, which he calls the extended order.

[3] Hayek says this demonstrates a key flaw within socialist thought, which holds that only purposefully designed changes can be maximally efficient.

Hayek notes that modern civilization and all its customs and traditions naturally led to the current order and are needed for its continuance.

It follows therefore, he asserts, that fundamental changes to the system—-made in an attempt to control it—-are impossible or unsustainable in modern civilization, and so are doomed to fail.

Bruce Caldwell thinks the evidence "clearly points towards a conclusion that the book was a product more of [Bartley's] pen than of Hayek's.